Heather

When Steve first told me that he had chronic kidney disease, we were still dating. And I remember when I got home, and after having that conversation with him, and I Googled girlfriend donates kidney to boyfriend, because at that point I was like I love this guy and I want him to be around for a long time. I reached out to a girl that I found in an article where she had donated a kidney to her boyfriend. And throughout the hardest days, I was able to look at that as hope. Like I could potentially give a kidney to my husband and help him feel better.

For me, donating a kidney was, was an easy decision, because honestly, I didn’t seek out the opinions of others, I didn’t ask anybody if I should. I asked them how I could. I met with a psychologist and had a psych eval and one question that he asked stuck with me. How are you going to feel if it doesn’t work? And, all of my fears and anxieties about it were surrounding on what if it doesn’t work? So, I wasn’t worried about the risks to me. I was thinking about the fallout emotionally, how we were going to cope with more bad news. And so, I just, I had to focus on the hope throughout that process.

The consequences that I’ve had have all been positive. First and foremost, my husband now has a working kidney and seeing the benefits of that every single day is just the greatest joy of this whole experience. Another way this has positively affected my life is I know now that I can do big things. And I am really grateful through this experience, because it has instilled in me this feeling of strength and bravery.